Why am I doing this?

I probably should have written this post earlier, but whatever.

So why am I doing this?

1.  Health reasons.  Vegetables have tons of nutrients that science is just starting to understand.  My body needs that.  When I have eaten more deliberately in the past, I've felt better.  

2. Connection to the past and other people in the world.  I want to eat like people did generations ago.  I want to eat like people in other cultures do.  I also want to connect with the people that grow my food.

3. Sustainability.  Locally grown produce leaves a smaller ecological footprint than food that shipped farther away.

4. Something to talk about with my mom.  She is *totally* in to nutrition and vegetables.   So much so that she has a photocopied article listing the "power foods" (spinach, broccoli, tomatoes, etc.) on her fridge.  So much that she eats a bizarre concoction of tomatoes, cabbage, and broccoli every day for lunch at work.  She's always wanted me to run a marathon - and believe me, that isn't happening anytime soon - so at least I can eat some asparagus and call it a day.

5.  Meat, while tasty, takes a lot of work.  Work to get to me, work for my body to digest, work to be produced, work to deal with the byproducts of production.   And the meat industry isn't too cool.

6.  Meat is apparently difficult for me too cook - I still have flashbacks of the great food poisoning nightmare of February 2008.  Ugh.  Picture me vomiting 4-5 times a day.  Picture me on a walk with my dog vomiting into a trash can in an alley.  Since that incident I haven't cooked any meat save a pork loin roast, ground turkey, and a chicken breast.

7.  Farmer's markets are fun!   And they have free samples.

8.  I can learn some new veggie options/recipes.

9.  I always do some sort of project with bizarre fervor.  Past projects have included: scrapbooking, yoga, exercise, bird feeding, etc.

10.  Now I have a reason to go into Whole Foods.